Thoughts on my pics

Harpers Ferry Photos 06-04-06

2006-07-27T15:36:00.001-04:00

Albums:
Harpers Ferry, WV
CSX in Harpers Ferry

My friend and I went up to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia because we thought it might be a good place to photograph trains. We were right. We got some excellent photos of trains going both ways across the mainline and also a train headed East from a track that comes up from the South. If you are familiar with my albums, you know I also like to take scenic and wildlife photos. Harpers Ferry proved to be an excellent spot to satisfy all of my photographic desires. I got enough photos on this trip to actually make two albums, one devoted to the scenery and birds and another to the trains. This is definitely a spot we will be returning to as there are more places to get good views of the trains and scenery. I am writing this entry nearly 2 months after we had gone to this place and they’ve been collecting view stats.

As of this writing Harpers Ferry, WV album has 733 views and 20 downloads and CSX in Harpers Ferry album has 4,872 views and 104 downloads. The CSX album is at the moment fighting tooth and nail with the Horseshoe Curve album (4,888 views, 59 downloads) for 2nd place (none of my albums come close to the 28,000+ views and 2000+ downloads that National Arboretum currently has).

Beverly Triton Beach 05-29-06

2006-07-27T15:17:00.001-04:00

Click Here for Album

Beverly Triton Beach Park had caught my attention on the map by being so large. I went over there to see what is at the park and found that it is apparently intended for the locals as there is very little parking. Much of the park itself appears that it may once have been a neighborhood. There are hints and signs of the past in many parts of the park. The main trails are basically old roads. Besides the size on the map, one of the things that attracted me to the site is the pond. Since I am trying to get new and interesting wildlife photos I figured this would be a sure thing since where there’s water, there’s usually wildlife. I was surprised and disappointed to find very little in the way of wildlife other than the Osprey and Red-Winged Blackbirds. What surprised me even more was getting home and looking at the map and discovering how little of this park I covered. I will definitely be returning here to look for more photos. One thing to be aware of: Despite the name, this is NOT a swimming beach. I don’t think swimming is permitted here anyway. But this is definitely not the place to go swimming.

But this is a great place to go for a quiet walk. The interior of the park is attractive and a little eerie with the signs of old residences – there’s old houses a wind blow away from falling over and other signs – there’s a good view of the Chesapeake Bay boat traffic and so on. The strangest thing I saw was some insects that seemed to be giving some sort of structure attention on a branch and others lined up. They look like they might be ants, but I really don’t know. If you know what they are, let me know.

Sandy Point State Park 05-28-06

2006-07-23T20:43:00.001-04:00

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I had gone to Sandy Point State Park on the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay in the shadow of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and found to my surprise a rather long line of cars waiting to get in. It is $5.00 PER PERSON to get into this park, $4.00 Per Person for Maryland Residents. But it is well worth it. There were three people taking the entry fees and several people inside the park directing people to parking. I was amazed at how packed the parking lots were. I was equally amazed at how un-crowded the park was despite all of the people. There is a wide variety of activity here from the boats coming and going by trailer to the marina. There’s a fishing pier in Mezick Pond where the boats are and a jetty that goes out into the Chesapeake Bay. There’s an Osprey nest near the end of the Jetty. There’s a long clean sandy beach, restrooms in several locations, great views of the Bay and the Sandy Point Shoal Lighthouse. There’s a bunch of picnic areas around and a few trails. I walked one of them and plan to return to walk more. I am told there’s a large turtle residing on the grounds and I plan to return to try to find it. This is a great place to visit, especially if you do not want to travel all the way to Rehoboth or Ocean City for a day on the beach. You will still be subject to the same backup traffic as the exit for this place is the last before the Bay Bridge.

Blue Angels over Annapolis 05-24-06

2006-05-27T10:49:00.001-04:00

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The Blue Angels performed in Annapolis as part of the Commissioning Ceremony for new Officers at the United States Naval Academy. I had intended to watch this from the Maryland World War II Memorial where I had watched the same show a few years ago. There weren’t very many people there and I was shocked when the place was absolutely packed and people were parked for miles along the sides of Rt. 450. I turned around and went back to Annapolis and decided to see if I could get into one of the parking decks. I figured there was little chance of getting in and I was right. They were full. Driving further along I realized there was a strip mall with a parking lot so I pulled in and waited for the show to start. While I did not see all of the fancy low level flying, I think I may have wound up getting better photos from here because I was not directly under the show. The part of the show I could see was still a lot of fun and the roar of fighter jet engines is always exhilarating. These are not the first fighters in flight I have photographed – I scored an F-16 flying over King’s Landing Park a few weeks ago. It was moving very fast and that experience made me think I probably would not get good photos of the Blue Angels. It turns out the Blue Angels were flying much slower. But that is by no means saying they were flying slow. I had to concentrate to keep a lock in my viewfinder even with them some distance away. The show lasted about 45 minutes. Great show Blue Angels! Good luck Academy Graduates!

Chesapeake Bay Bridge Walk 05-07-06

2006-05-27T10:26:00.001-04:00

Click here for album.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge (aerial photo) opens for people to walk across its 4.3 miles in the spring. Not every year like it used to, though. I took vastly more pictures than I expected I would take. I took 429 pictures and uploaded 143. This really turned out to be about 3 albums in one. First the Bay Bridge walk itself, second the wildlife and scenery and third the boats and ships including the restarting of the Volvo Ocean Race.

I understand about 20,000 people walked across the bridge. I parked on one of the two Western Shore lots and took a bus provided by the Washington D.C. transit authority to the Eastern end of the bridge. All of the non-articulated buses I saw were natural gas or hybrid buses. I rode a natural gas bus to and from the parking area. The event appeared to be well planned and executed. Even though it took me a long time to get into a parking space, there was very little wait at either end to get on the bus and everyone was friendly. On the bridge itself there were a lot of personnel watching out for us from officers stationed at fairly frequent intervals to mini-ambulances stationed at a few places along the bridge. There were port-a-potties at both ends of the bridge and at several places along the bridge itself, but apparently ran out of TP fairly early as people were checking to see if others had any. Also on the bridge were two tanker trucks supplying water to a bunch of water fountains. No containers were apparently being passed out so you had to fill up your own. Helicopters were flying the length of the bridge keeping an eye out for problems. There were also planes pulling banners and an unusual sight, a helicopter towing a banner.

At the Eastern end of the bridge there is a pond in between the eastbound and westbound spans. This pond held a few treasures including a pair of swan nesting, a few mallards, a Red Winged Blackbird and some sort of black butterfly. Further along the bridge I caught my first photos of a bird called a Common Tern. Toward the middle of the bridge I was taking pictures of Gulls and Cormorants. I finally got some decent photos of Cormorants. They’re hard to photograph because they fly very fast. Scenic photos of both shorelines and the bridge itself were taken along the entire walk.

Since this was the Volvo Ocean Race restart day there were quite a few boats and ships to the South of the bridge including the Liberty Ship John W. Brown which I took photos of from the grounds of Fort McHenry a little while back, a sailing ship that appeared to be the Pride of Baltimore II and other sailing and motor boats lining up to watch the race. There was also quite a bit of boat traffic under the bridge. Various police and coast guard boats were patrolling the boat to make everybody pass under the bridge under a particular span towards the East end. Photos were also taken of two bay lighthouses, the Sandy Point Shoal Lighthouse and the Baltimore Lighthouse (which, incidentally, is not at Baltimore). When the Volvo Ocean Race restarted I was just to the East of the suspension span and got some pretty decent shots of the contenders.

I got several good photos of the bridges themselves from various points along the bridge, especially the Western end where the bridges curve northward and give you a good view between the spans towards the East.

All in all, this walk made for a good day. I was tired and a bit sunburned, but I will definitely be keeping an eye out for the next time they open the bridge to walkers. Despite the very long wait Eastbound vehicles had on the approach to crossing the bridge (only one lane was available to them), many of them seemed to maintain good humor crossing the bridge with some vehicle occupants cheering and waving the walkers and some trucks blowing their air horns.

Piney Point Lighthouse 05-06-06

2006-05-27T09:11:00.001-04:00

Click here for album.

The Piney Point Lighthouse (aerial photo) is great spot to spend some time. Even though the signs indicated the museum was supposed to be open the day I went (May through October, Noon to 5PM, Friday through Monday – this was a Saturday afternoon in May), it was closed. Fortunately the grounds are open. There were only a small handful of people there and I was alone more than half the time. This is kind of an out of the way spot. Because there was a tanker loading (or unloading) the near constant sound of fluid rushing through the pipe was present. It sounded a bit like a jet engine at a fair distance. But it did not bother me. This is probably not a frequent occurrence. I enjoyed the opportunity to take photos of the tanker and the tugboats in addition to the lighthouse, critters and great scenery.

I probably discovered this place through its membership in the Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network which I periodically check for great places to visit. I particularly enjoy looking through that site because some of my greatest shots have been on or near some body of water, most often the Chesapeake Bay. The Lighthouse grounds are no exception. I got some great photos of an Osprey nest here with one of the adults making forages out for nesting material and food. There were some other birds around as well. I got some great photos of Gulls, Tree Swallow, Cardinal, Mourning Dove and a great sequence of Double Crested Cormorants apparently chasing a gull. I also got some photos of jellyfish and a rabbit. There were some interesting shells and other things on the beach, including a feather, that were also photographed.

One of the highlights of this place aside from the lighthouse itself is a pier that allows for great viewing of the Osprey on their nest. Their website says that this is a wheelchair accessible pier and I would certainly agree with that. There’s a good sturdy boardwalk leading all the way to it. There are also benches to sit on at the end of the pier some of which look directly at the Osprey nest (looking at the aerial photo above, the pier is a small line heading Southeast from the beach, the Osprey nest is the black dot on the water to the Northeast of the pier). The Osprey nest can also be seen by walking along the beach. There is also a nice sandy beach here. They discourage swimming and for good reason. This is very close to where the Potomac empties into the Chesapeake Bay and I imagine the currents can be quite strong. The beach itself has interesting shells and other items which produced some interesting photos. The signage on the lighthouse grounds is good and discusses the lighthouse itself and the history of the grounds.

Southern Maryland Spring Festival 05-06-06

2006-05-27T08:28:00.001-04:00

Click here for album.

I sometimes check the MDisfun.org website’s calendar to see what sorts of events are going on. I saw the Southern Maryland Spring Festival listed and decided to go down and have a look. It turned out to be more like a carnival at the St. Mary’s County Fairgrounds near Leonardtown, Maryland. The highlight of this event for me was the parade which consisted mainly of old cars followed by old tractors. I think I spent about an hour here and was annoyed by the teenagers who didn’t seem to know how to behave in public. You can see from their webpage what kinds of things went on and overall this event was nice for families.

Historic London Town & Gardens 04-30-06

2006-05-14T17:12:00.001-04:00

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My trip to the Historic London Town & Gardens (aerial photo) was a very pleasant experience. The day started overcast with a thin layer of clouds. Because of my great luck with bright direct sunlight I was hesitant to go but decided to give the lighting a chance. I discovered that this kind of lighting has some benefits over direct sunlight in that there are few or no shadows and the lighting is more even and not so harsh on some types of subjects. However, the clouds burned off before long and the day was brighter than I expected.

Admission to both parts (The William Brown House, which is the main feature of the town, and the Gardens) is $7. One or the other is $4 each. I bought the $7 tour which also provided me with two brochures, one containing a map of the grounds with the trails shown and markings of features of interest and the other a brief history of tidewater trade and travel. These are both very nice and enhanced the experience.

The Historic London Town & Gardens is split into two parts as suggested by the name. The garden is where I spent most of the 4 hours on the site (open that day from noon to 4). The flower gardens cover less space than it seems to. It has trails that wind around and the number of attractions are packed in fairly well. This is a terrific place to spend some time. I got the feeling I get from some places of peace and well being here. I seem to get this most often when I am alone in a beautiful place. In fact, I am not sure words can really describe this feeling. There are a wide variety of flowers and plants in the gardens. There is also a small pond where I found two mallards taking a mid day nap. I only posted pictures of the female because the male was fairly well hidden in some tall plants. I think the photos of the mallard came out pretty well. There were also some Osprey and Gulls flying over head and I got a few pictures of those. I got a pair of pictures of an Osprey carrying some lunch but the camera didn’t focus fast enough (and I wasn’t patient enough to let it) so the pictures are slightly blurry but I posted them anyway. I think they came out well enough.

There is a guided tour of the William Brown House which lasts roughly an hour. Photography was not permitted inside the house so I am not able to provide any photos of the interior, but I did post a couple photos of the exterior to the album. The tour is very interesting and the guide described life during the era the house was being used, the various items in the house and some stories of some of the individuals that lived in or passed through. There are also other buildings on the property as well as an active archaeological dig in a tent which I was able to enter and see the cut lines in the dirt and some of the items in the layers. No one was doing any digging on this day, however.

Outside the house I was able to get some great photographs of a groundhog. There is also a “tenement”, a tobacco barn and some other structures of interest on the property. There is a dock on the river near the house with a bench next to the water’s edge. The bench is placed a little too close to the edge for comfort as far as getting in and out go, but it is a great place to get a view of the river and some of the critters in the area. There is quite a bit of boat traffic up and down the river, but you can’t really hear it when you’re not right on the river’s edge.

This is a quiet, beautiful and peaceful place and I am glad I live only a few minutes away from it. It is very likely that I will be returning to this place at least a couple times more this year.

Baltimore Waterfront Festival 04-29-06

2006-05-11T21:04:00.001-04:00

Click Here for Album.

The Baltimore Waterfront Festival was an interesting experience. It was a pleasant clear warm day. I look the light rail from the Glen Burnie Station to the Camden Yards station. This was my first time on the light rail since they finished the double tracking project where they double tracked the entire line. I walked East along W. Conway Street until I reached Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. I was surprised at how many people were here. According to the website 350,000 people showed up to the 4 day event. The centerpiece of the Waterfront Festival is the Baltimore stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race. There was quite a bit to see and do here. There were several old style sailing ships in addition to the Volvo Ocean racers.

I made a near beeline for the Top of the World observation deck at the top of the Baltimore World Trade Center. I had previously been here on February 5th after visiting the Baltimore Aquarium. I had found appallingly filthy windows. I was certain with warmer weather, more visitors and the Festival, the windows should be spotless. Wrong. They were once again appallingly filthy. I do not think the people who run this place care about visitor experience and I recommend that you avoid this place if clean windows will be an issue. It wrecked the experience for me even though I was still able to get a few good shots. You’ll see the filth in the pictures I took from there, however. For the $5, I expect the windows to be clean, after all, that is all they have to offer.

I continued Eastward along the Northern edge of the Inner Harbor passing the aquarium and the Power Plant. I arrived at the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse. I climbed the stairs up to the lighthouse and saw that they were doing some restoration to it. There is apparently usually a fee to get into the lighthouse, but it was free on this day and there was a friendly and enthusiastic attendant on hand to explain the lighthouse to folks. Some of the rooms were closed, but you could walk the outside ring and climb the stairs inside to just below the lighthouse lense. I got a great view of the Baltimore Public Works museum but I did not visit. I plan to in the future.

After I climbed off the lighthouse I decided I was hungry. There’s a restaurant called McCormick & Schmick’s. I decided to give this place a try since it had been a while since I’d had something nice to eat. It took about 8 minutes for the waitress to take my order. We were not getting off to a good start. I had their fried shrimp with shoestring fries and what they called an “Arnold Palmer” (lemonade and iced tea). The shrimp were tasty but they’d been fried too long. Instead of a nice golden brown they were more of a deep brown and the breading dug into my gums. The shoestring fries were great and I love the seasoning they put in them. The Arnold Palmer was pretty bad. It had bitter iced tea in it that restaurants often serve. I never seem to learn my lesson about restaurant iced tea. The waitress came by with the check, I put my money in it and she took it and vanished again. After 7 minutes I started to look for her. I asked the hostesses at the front if they knew where she went. 5 minutes after that she showed up a dollar short. I will not be returning to this place.

After the Top of the World and McCormick & Schmick’s efforts to ruin my day, I wound back West, the South along the Inner Harbor. Here there were exhibits, shows, boats and vendors. A great set up. There is a great visitor center here as well. Volvo had their setup along the Southern edge of the Inner Harbor. Some great things were on display here related to the Volvo Ocean Race including a semi truck, a Volvo made out of legos and other interesting things.

A bit beyond this is a memorial to the Pride of Baltimore. I will let their website get into the details, but this is a beautiful place. From here I walked up to the top of Federal Hill Park. The top appears to be geared mainly as a park for the locals and there is a very nice fenced in playground up there. What is truly nice about this place, however, is the view North across the Inner Harbor to Baltimore’s skyline. A view to the East gives you the more industrial side of Baltimore. There are benches up here and this is a great place to sit a while. There’s also a large open grassy area at the top of the hill. The Baltimore Museum of Industry is at the base of the hill on the East but I did not go there on this day. I plan to visit sometime in the future.

I saw other things while here, but I will let the photos in the album tell the rest of the story. For the most part I enjoyed this day despite the fact that I typically do not like to be around crowds.

20,000 Views on My Albums!

2006-04-16T22:02:00.000-04:00

Actually, 21,614 views and 1163 downloads to all my albums! 6 days ago my weekly stats report from Webshots indicated that I had 8,742 total views and 254 downloads. For those of you who don’t use the Webshots Desktop, the download figure means how many times images have been downloaded from my collection into the Webshots Desktop for the purpose of displaying on their desktop and/or screensavers. A week ago I had figured that at the then current rate of views of 400 to 600 a week I was figuring on breaking 10,000 views in 3 or so weeks. Instead the albums blew past 20,000 in less than a week!

I had kind of figured that the National Arboretum album might pick up the pace a bit, but I had no idea what was in store for me on the 10th when Amy M made the National Arboretum album her Staff Pick. The first day after that the National Arboretum album got more than 1100 views and the view rate increased steadily since then with just over 2000 views yesterday for a current total of 11,500 views and 859 downloads as of today. By itself that one album blew past any and all personal statistic records I had. I will have the official 7 day tally tomorrow, but this goes way beyond any record in terms of views that I had gotten. My previous high views for a week was the week ending February 12th where I had gotten 879 views that week. So as things stand my view count across all albums for the past 6 days is 12,899 and 909 downloads. Since the National Arboretum album started at 281 views in the last statistic reporting period that means it has gotten 11,219 so far this week and all other albums put together got 1680 views and 50 downloads. This by itself would smash any previous personal stats records, but it would not have happened without the Staff Picks as the increase in views to the other albums are largely residual visitors. But I am happy that some people are hanging around and enjoying my other albums.

I will now bore you with even more information of interest only to me. Whereas National Arboretum is at #1 with both views and downloads, Horseshoe Curve is #2 in views with 2211 and #3 in downloads with 44, BNSF & UP in Illinois is #3 in views with 1844 and #2 in downloads with 126 (which it has been accumulating since July of 2003). #4 in views is CP & SOO Line in Northern Minnesota with 739 which it has also been accumulating since July of 2003. Howard University currently in 5th place with 680 views will probably overtake it in a few weeks. #4 in downloads is Roanoke, VA and Skyline Drive which has 26 and surprisingly got no downloads this past week. I do not really have any complaints about the view and download rates of the other albums with the exception of Wye Island 01-16-05 which currently has only 115 views. Some of my favorite shots are in that album.

The number of folks who have added my albums as Favorite has shot up from 3 last week to 15 as of this writing. All of these things really make me feel good. I am happy that people are enjoying the photos I have taken. I wish there were better facilities for communicating with people on my albums at Webshots. There are good facilities here at Blogspot when one replies to a blog entry, but so far the only person who has done so is a fellow from Qoop. I do not know if this means that not many people are viewing my blog or if they just don’t have anything to say. In any event, I am writing to the blog mainly to expand the descriptions of the various albums and to comment on other things related to the albums so technically if the only person that sees these is me, it is fulfilling its purpose. But I would encourage anyone with questions or comments to reply to any of my blog entries.

This past week has been a big learning experience in terms of views. I had previously not known how some people were apparently getting so many views per day. I did not realize there were that many folks looking at Webshots images on a daily basis. I would like to hope that I will someday make the Staff Picks again and experience this kind of balloon in view statistics. I realize that to get the really big numbers you need to be in the spotlight. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. Not everyone can be in the spotlight all the time. I have also seen that to get bigger numbers you need to do two basic things: Have good photos that cater to a relatively narrow field of interest (in my case I have some Trains related albums) and two, advertise your album in a place of interest. In my case when I have a railroad related album I post the link to it to the railroad related BBS I check a few times a week (http://www.trainboard.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi). Otherwise you are basically competing against an ocean of very talented people and you have to rely on luck to get something like the Staff Picks. The people who are really talented wind up on Webshot’s front page. Albums with high views wind up on the Top Downloads page (which apparently has a bug in it since even though the National Arboretum has 766 views, it is not located on this page). You may be fortunate to have someone do some advertising for you. With that in mind I ask that you please check the following album and blog: Eugeneinthemiddle’s album and his blog.

I would like to thank everyone who has stopped by to view and download my images and I am very happy that you are enjoying them!

B&O Railroad Museum 03-19-06

2006-04-15T23:23:00.001-04:00

Click Here for photo album.

[Photographs posted under the approval of the B&O Railroad Museum.]

I went to the B&O Railroad Museum on March 19th but just recently got permission to post the photos from the museum. The delay is my fault due to not following up on an action. I had been asked by someone on Trainboard about copyrights on images I had taken but of subjects owned by someone else and I had intended to put a brief thing up here about relevant copyright law, but I was not able to find anything. I am fairly certain copyright law covers this and even if it doesn’t I would prefer to abide by a facility’s policies. Otherwise I would not have bothered to A) check for the policies (as I do prior to going to a place so I don’t wind up getting a “nastygram” from someone’s lawyer) or B) ask for permission as this museum’s policy requires. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dave Shackelford, Chief Curator at the museum, for his assistance and patience in providing me the permission required to display these photos here and at the webshots album.

Now that we’ve gotten that fun stuff out of the way I can talk about the museum itself (aerial photo). This is the first time I had been to the museum since prior to the collapse of part of the roof of the roundhouse dome on February 16th, 2003 as a result of heavy snow (Baltimore Sun article, and another). It was a massive snowfall. The result to the museum is damaged and smashed exhibits (see the image in the first article for a view into the damaged roundhouse). Another result was the cancellation of the Fair of the Iron Horse which was to mark the 175th anniversary of railroading in the US. Prior to this the Baltimore & Ohio Museum was an excellent museum in my view. However, they truly made lemonade out of lemons and not only repaired the roof but took the opportunity of the museum’s closure to make several changes to the layout and to exhibits which have made this place truly a world class museum. The reorientation makes better use of space inside the museum and provides a glimpse into the Mount Claire (the site of the museum) station, the first passenger railroad station in the United States, several collections including clocks and timepieces, scale replicas of railroad equipment including a cutaway view of an FT diesel locomotive and other excellent additions and changes.

Outside the roundhouse they have constructed a pair of covered raised walkways which gives you access to enter some of the railcars and views through the windows of others. There’s a caboose you can enter and climb up into the cupola, a “reefer” (refrigerated car) that appears to be oriented towards kids and is mainly a theater – a movie about model railroads was showing when I went into the car. Another car has their brand new HO Scale layout which shows scenery from modern downtown Baltimore to the mountains of Western Maryland and is quite spectacular. It is not the level of quality that I had expected given the availability of techniques and skills that are available, particularly here in Maryland, but it is still very much worth seeing. I spent quite some time inside there looking at the scenery and watching the several trains that were running. The area where the old layout that had been inside the museum building is no longer accessible and I believe it had been dismantled. Still another car has access to a World War II “troop car” which is a fascinating exhibit about how GIs were transported to where they needed to go. The diesel shop is now also open from time to time and there is quite a bit to see in here including some equipment (such as the C&O Streamliner and the Allegheny) that had been outside previously. There is quite a variety of equipment on the grounds and in the roundhouse. Since there is limited space at the museum they had to carefully pick and choose what goes where for best display effect. Some equipment has been moved around and probably will continue to be moved around over time. The result is that your favorite equipment might not be in the place where you can get the best view of it. For example, the BL2 was placed next to a fence so while I could get a good look at it, I couldn’t get a good picture of it. But I feel they have done a great job with the space they have, especially with the equipment in the roundhouse and other buildings. Of the equipment in the roundhouse they have on display three locomotives that had been damaged in the roof collapse protected by a clear plastic barrier both to protect the visitors and the equipment. There are signs in front of each locomotive describing the cost to repair it. The roundhouse also houses some of the oldest equipment on the property and some interesting types of equipment such as a Shay type locomotive. Signage around the museum describing the exhibits is good. There is a G scale model railroad outside the roundhouse the kids will love. There are train rides along the first mile of commercial (or “common carrier”) railroads tracks in the United States from April to December and is included in the price of admission.

What really makes this museum special goes beyond the fact that it is a collection of equipment. This museum has good focus and definition of purpose. It is also attractive, clean and well staffed with attendants willing and eager to answer questions. It takes the time and space to explain various aspects of railroading and has reached out to people of varying ages and interests levels. This is a fantastic place to take kids whether they have an avid interest in trains or if they have shown no particular interest. There is not a lot of walking involved here so short legs won’t get worn out yet there are plenty of things for kids with short attention spans to jump between various exhibits. This is also an excellent place for adults to visit whether a railfan, a fan of American or industrial history, or are just looking for something new and interesting to see. The wide variety of different kinds of exhibits and equipment will satisfy any level of interest in railroading.

Tragically and confusingly the “Donation Info” page on their website provides no information at all of any of the projects that require funding, what funding level is needed and what the progress is. This is most confusing because following the roof collapse there were near weekly photos and updates being made to the website on repairs being done to the dome and what other projects they had in mind. I don’t understand why they don’t follow this same basic philosophy in order to make people aware that there are specific projects needing funding. I don’t think a weekly update is needed, but maybe an update monthly or quarterly would be good. Ideally in my view would be a blog so people could create RSS subscriptions and get updates as they occur. In this way they would be able to generate excitement about the projects they have. Fortunately they have facilities for making online donations. If you have the ability and desire to give to the B&O Railroad Museum, please do. The museum facilities are also available for event rental.

The bottom line is this is a great place to spend some time. I am a member of the museum and have museum license plates on my van. (The photo to the left was taken in Galesburg, Illinois where I was taking the first sets of pictures I uploaded to webshots almost 3 years ago. It was taken with a point and shoot film camera instead of the Canon S2 IS I have been using since summer 2005.) I don’t go here nearly as often as I want to, but I intend to make a return visit fairly soon so I can give some specific exhibits closer attention and take another ride on their train.

Cherry Blossom photo made the Staff Picks at Webshots today!

2006-04-10T21:54:00.000-04:00

Something terrific has happened for me today. Amy M over at Webshots has selected my Cherry Blossom photo has a Staff Pick for today, April the 10th. There were two Staff Picks today; the other is quite spectacular as well. The staff picks some very amazing pictures out of the ones that have been taken by the members, and there are some very talented members at Webshots and I am excited to be among the ones selected for this special honor. There isn’t much else to say except that I am very excited! Thank you Amy M and thank you Webshots!

Qoop Delivers!

2006-04-09T20:37:00.000-04:00

I have been negligent in writing this particular blog entry. Back on March 23rd I wrote a blog entry regarding a photo book I ordered from Qoop and how DHL botched the job. Hugh Folkerth, Director of Consumer Relations at Qoop, responded to that blog entry and said Qoop would send a fresh copy even though DHL damaged the book and was no fault of Qoop's. As promised, a fresh (and pristine) copy of my photo book arrived on March 31st. It was packed even tighter than the previous one (which itself was very well packed). Packing these books is kind of a subjective process since you can have a range of pages and therefore not every book is going to be the same thickness. I am very happy with Qoop and plan to have books made every few months based on some of my photos for the benefit of my grandmother who has no access to see my images online. And come the end of the year, I will be making calendars. It will be very exciting to have a calendar with my own photos on it! I am enthusiastic about this company because they deliver great products and stand by it to the hilt.

National Arboretum 04-02-06

2006-04-05T22:06:00.001-04:00

Click HERE for Album.

On Sunday I went to the National Arboretum (see also: Friends of the National Arboretum) in Washington D.C. This place actually has a fairly decent website for it. The main improvement I would make to it is a map of the trails. There is a map, but each area of interest is indicated by a symbol and description page. This is good, but there should also be a trail map, probably a separate map. It was a nice warm day with a bit of a breeze. Quite comfortable.

Early spring is one of my favorite times of the year. The budding leaves and the explosion of color in the flowers give me a feeling of hope and optimism. So the logical place for me to go on this bright sunny day was the National Arboretum (aerial photo). I went hoping to see some Cherry Blossoms and boy, did I ever. The Cherry Blossom trees were absolutely thick with flowers and it looks like pink snow to me. On the grounds near the visitor center there is a very large one and you can sit on a bench under the canopy.

The visitor center is definitely the place to start. It has a bit of a moat around it with some fish in it. It seemed to be a hit with the kids. The center itself has some flowers and flowering trees around it. Being early in the year not all of the flowers have come out to play yet. I am sure this place will be even more interesting in the near future. Not far from the visitor center is the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum which is very fascinating and is not to be missed. I did not see the entire Arboretum, in fact, I saw very little of the property and this is still the album with the largest number of images to date. I got there around 1pm thinking it was about noon since I did not know it was daylight savings time. I still managed to spend about 4 hours and 20 minutes here. With that in mind, if you plan to see everything I would suggest two 8 hour days – at least.

There are plenty of roads from one parking lot to the next, but most of them are rather small and even though it is not permitted to do so in most places, people also parked on the sides of the roads. These roads are too narrow for this kind of behavior, especially considering that the roads are two way and also expected to be used by bikes and pedestrians. Please, people, don’t park on these narrow roads if you go there. Park in one of the lots and walk. Your experience will improve drastically this way. That being said, part of the fault is that of the Arboretum. Some of the lots are absolutely tiny and if people are going to see some of the things there are to see, there’s no choice. There is a very large parking lot near the New York Avenue entrance, but it does not appear to be anything and I did not notice any trailheads there (although that does not mean there isn’t one). What I would suggest to the Arboretum is to first make the roads ONE WAY and make parking spaces along some of the wider and straighter stretches and to also have shuttles going from the large parking lot to the various points of interest in the Arboretum. While they have a tram, it is seasonal and is not intended to serve this function. They provide a tour with no stops for the passengers to get off and look. The good news is that it can accommodate two wheelchairs. Speaking of which, they made this place about as wheelchair friendly as they could, but there are some places where a wheelchair would not fare too well.

There is a variety of different kinds of scenery here as well as different and pleasant smells. It is a very pleasant place to be. The signage is good, although not consistent. I think this is a result of different organizations working on different areas and various work being done in different eras. There is even once place in Fern Valley where the signs encourage you to rub the leaves and smell them. Very interesting! One great thing about this place is that even though there were a good number of people there, there were plenty of places where I did not see anyone else. I suspect this will change when things warm up some more and more variety of flowers bloom. I will definitely be returning here in order to see (and photograph) more of the park.

Terrapin Park 03-27-06

2006-03-27T20:52:00.001-05:00

Click Here for photo album.

Today I went to Terrapin Park on the Eastern Shore in Maryland. It is a part of the Queen Anne’s County Department of Parks. This is another bad park page, but I have to give them credit since it looks like they were trying. But they are due for a massive makeover. This park is the Eastern terminus of the “Cross Island Trail” – the Island being Kent Island (parks map). You do need to take care as there is no sign indicating that you need to step off the paved trail in order to walk the park trails or you could wind up inadvertently walking down the Cross Island Trail.

I was not feeling well this morning and took the day off from work, but wanted to get out for some air and picked what I thought was a tiny park. It turned out to be much bigger than I thought. I’ve gotten some of my most interesting photos wildlife wise from this park. I uploaded pictures of about 4 kinds of birds, a rabbit, some turtles, a frog, an insect and what is probably a beaver. I saw some more kinds of birds some I couldn’t get a picture of and others the pictures weren’t really interesting enough to upload.

This is a great if hard to find spot. There are no signs that I could see from the main road. You have to drive through a new industrial area to get to it. Here is an aerial photo of the place. There are a few nice spots at this park. They have a pond with two duck blinds. No birds were visible in the pond, but I looked up and spotted a beautiful bird of prey which I later discovered is an Osprey. I had to double check since I thought these were hard to get a glimpse of and there was no such difficulty here. They have an open meadow area which isn’t interesting yet, but it will be soon according to a sign that was present. There is a raised viewing platform suggesting it is worth a return visit. There is a fairly long trail along the beach of the Chesapeake Bay and the Bay Bridge is visible along the entire length as well as the Western Shore. I had the opportunity to watch a southbound container ship as well. There are benches located in several places along the trail including on the beach, so this is a good spot to just sit and watch. Most of the wildlife action was in the pond, however. The best place to park yourself is on the trail that splits the pond. I found the presence of other people in the park would cause bird traffic. That is also where I saw what I think is a beaver and it just kept moving across the pond this way and that. I also scored some excellent shots of a Downy Woodpecker and a Great Blue Heron. But my favorite shots would have to be the beautiful Osprey.

It is important to note that if you don’t slow down and swivel your head around you’re going to miss some great sights in any place. I would have marched right on by the Downy Woodpecker without noticing it had I not been looking this way and that. I was able to maneuver around on the trail to get some shots and it didn’t hardly pay me any attention. It is also important to find a good potential viewing spot and just stop and be silent and still and something will pop up. Like the turtle in the water that I got a picture of. I tried to get a better picture but it dived underwater with impressive speed when I moved. Also, don’t get bummed out when one of a park’s attractions comes up empty, like the duck blinds did here. Keep looking, be patient, go slow and keep looking around. You may come across something completely unexpected, like I did with the rabbit in the middle of the path.

Photobooks from Digital Images!

2006-03-23T11:00:00.000-05:00

Webshots, the place I store my albums online, recently partnered with a company called Qoop to provide people with the ability to print photos from their online albums into photo books, calendars, posters and post cards. I had wanted to send a book of my photos to my grandmother since she does not have a way to see them online. I selected 34 of my images to be turned into a photo book. I picked one photo per page. The cost was pretty reasonable, about $18 for the book and about $4 for shipping. Qoop delivered it within the time frame promised. The first hitch came with DHL. The online tracking system said it had been delivered and signed for so I went to the place where I have things delivered, a UPS Store, and the package was not there and they said DHL had not been there that day. I went home and called DHL to find out what the story is. They lady who answered the phone was polite and after some checking said I would get a call the next day after the driver was contacted. The next morning the UPS Store emailed me to indicate the package had arrived so I went to the store to take a look. DHL called about an hour after the UPS Store emailed me, which is about expected. The lady left a message on my phone (I don’t get a signal in the store) explaining the details and that the package had been delivered to the correct location. Even though Qoop had packaged it fairly well, DHL had managed to bend it so now the book has a crease from the top down about 4 inches.

The book itself is very good. There were some minor artifacts on some of the images, but nothing I would call major, especially for the price. All in all I am very happy with Qoop, not happy at all with DHL considering the package was sent to the wrong place and damaged. The UPS Store continues to make me happy – especially with email package delivery notification. It helped that the DHL folks were polite and patient on the phone, however. Bottom line: I’ll definitely be buying from Qoop again, especially towards the end of the year when it comes time to buy calendars for 2007. I don’t have a choice about DHL since that is their only shipping option.

I have sent the book along to my grandmother. I am hoping it will arrive on Saturday. I am very pleased to have this option available to me so I can share my digital images with my non-connected family members.

Fort McHenry 03-19-06

2006-03-22T21:37:00.001-05:00

Click here for the Fort McHenry photo album.

I went to two places on Sunday, the B&O Railroad Museum and Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine. The B&O Railroad Museum requires permission to publish their photos and I am still waiting for it. I will blog the trip to the B&O when I get the permission and post the images.

Fort McHenry (see also, In Depth) in Baltimore, Maryland is a really great place to visit. It has history, industry and a bit of nature and a lot of scenery. You’ve seen me complain before about how badly park services treat their parks on their websites and often leave it up to the individual parks to provide more detailed information. By clicking on In Depth you will see an effort to provide more information. There is a considerable amount of good information on the monument here. As of this writing, the “Last Updated” date is February of this year so it shows someone is making an active effort to maintain the page. In Depth also has a good aerial photo of the site that is good to refer to when viewing some of my photos. Local.live.com also has good aerial photos and bird’s eye views. Using the aerial photos and bird’s eye views can be good if you want to locate some of the features I have photographed.

It was in the 40s but quite windy the day I went to Fort McHenry. I do not like to go out photographing on windy days because of all the stuff that can be blown onto the lense of my camera. I really loved by visit here. The Fort is beautiful and well kept and has good signage. Some of the exhibits inside the buildings in the Fort are dark and hard to see in, but I think they are making a point. That is what it was like in 1814. The flag pole is a replica of the one that was there when Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner” and the flag that was flying the day I was there is smaller than the one he would have seen due to the wind that day. They do have a full size flag and when the wind speed is right, they hoist it up. They don’t use the full size flag all the time because it would cause undue stress on the wood flag pole. Note that the flag has 15 stars and 15 stripes.

In addition to the features of the Fort, the position of the Fort lends to excellent views of some of the industries around it. I saw quite a lot of ships. Of particular interest to me was the Ro Ro (Roll On-Roll Off) ships. One opened at the nose and the other opened at the rear. According to the Atlantic Ro-Ro Carriers website, they have 7 ships and travel between St. Petersburg, Russia and several US ports, one of which is Baltimore. There were also three big boxy auto carriers and a few other ships. Some industries could be seen on shore as well. I even scored a shot of some covered hopper railroad cars near where the Ro Ro ships were. I also got a very good shot of the WWII Liberty Ship John W. Brown. I thought it might have been a Liberty Ship when I was looking at it, but did not think it was likely. When I looked up Liberty Ship on the web, the website for that ship was the first hit. Read their site if you are unfamiliar with Liberty Ships. They played an important role in WWII.

Also visible from the Fort grounds is the huge Francis Scott Key Bridge. It does not look that large from the Fort, but I drove over it while going to North Point State Park to get pictures and it is huge. I had the opportunity to watch one of the big auto carrying ships pass under it on its way out to the Chesapeake Bay. I had the excellent opportunity also to watch and photograph a pair of tugboats head out from the direction of the Inner Harbor towards the auto carrying ship, once the ship was underway they returned. I got a picture of the two tugs returning along with a pilot boat heading out.

There were quite a lot of birds around the Fort, mostly waterfowl. I saw three different kinds of ducks, the Bufflehead, the American Wigeon and the Mallard. There were also some Double-Crested Cormorants flying around. I want to stop for a minute and talk about two resources I bought to help me identify birds. I dislike seeing something and not knowing what it is, so I am viewing my adventures as an educational experience as well. The first item I bought is a fold up waterproof “quick-guide” by a company called “Local Birds” – I got it from the Chesapeake Environmental Center. The second is the “Peterson First Guides Birds” book. I felt like it was written specifically for me because the beginning of the book goes into the basics of bird identification which itself is an educational experience on what kinds of birds there are out there. I will definitely be buying more from the Peterson First Guides collection. The book is excellent sized to drop it in a backpack and keep it with you while out on the trail, but I intend to keep it here at home base for identification after I upload the pictures. I bought this book at the Battle Creek Cypress Swamp. So anyway. Before I had these resources, the only bird I could identify was the Mallard. What is interesting is that while the Mallard will dip into the water for lunch, the Wigeon will actually dive. I saw a raft of about 6 of these things off shore and they would disappear from view for 30 seconds at a time.

There is also a trail that winds around the Fort next to the water all the way around. There is also an oddity on the property, a large statue to Orpheus. Read this PDF file to find out why it is there.

This is an excellent if somewhat surreal place to visit. The view over the archaic cannons aiming out to the modern industry can help put a bit of a perspective on how much things have changed.

Photos From Two Parks in Calvert County, Maryland

2006-03-11T20:56:00.001-05:00

Album URLs:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meabbott/sets/72157605985946943/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meabbott/sets/72157605985840485/

I haven’t been out to take pictures in a couple of weeks so when I saw the temperatures were going to be warm and the skies sunny, I jumped at the chance to get out. I tried out my new hiking boots I got from L.L. Bean last week. I found them to be very nice, but they’re a little smaller than I thought they were so I will trade them for the next size up. I tried the L.L. Bean Lightweight Cresta Hiking Socks with them and they are terrific. I went to two places today, Battle Creek Cypress Swamp and King’s Landing. These are two of the three parks in the Calvert County Parks system. I didn’t make it to Flag Pond but I will go there another time. In the fine tradition of park system websites, these pages do a tragic disservice to these parks. They don’t describe all of the features of the parks (EG: The website doesn’t describe the kind of Cypress Tree they have, nor does the site indicate they have an arboretum!). I have not yet discovered the reason park services seem to treat their parks so harshly on their websites, but there must be a reason. They all do it. There are some individual parks that have their own pages where they tend to have better information, they seem to be maintained by the folks at the park in question.

On to Battle Creek Cypress Swamp. I’d been there once before a few years ago and noted that it was quiet and the air relatively still. The reason for that is that it is in a bit of a valley. It is very pleasant. There is a nice visitor center that describes and has examples of some of the critters you may see, though I saw nothing but birds and some insects except for one frog who made his departure before I could snap a picture. Just as well, he was a muddy fellow. This is a good visitor center and you will want to spend a few moments here before heading onto the trail. Most of the trail is a boardwalk which to me seemed to be very well maintained. It was very firm and felt quite safe. There were a few people walking the boardwalk, but not as many as I had expected given the nice day. But this is kind of an out of the way place. The boardwalk is a loop that leads out into the wetlands and back. The wetlands inside the loop is chaotic with branches and so on where the area outside looked a little bit neater. I am not sure why this is. The bright sun gave me the opportunity to get some good photos from here. Looking through the clear water with the bright sun was especially nice. I took a side trail towards the end which led off the board walk and onto a dirt path. I saw an overturned car and an old house up this way. Back at the center they have some ponds which is a good place to watch for small birds if you hold still and be patient. There is also a Barred Owl which was blind from being hit by a car in a hutch.

I went on to King’s Landing to see what the deal is there. The place felt more like a community recreation center to me, but if you look at an aerial photo you see about half the park is left to nature. Although there are several activities mentioned on the website, they neglect to mention that there is a swimming pool (obviously not open yet) or an equestrian area. This park has areas set up for people to learn to get their bearings using a compass as well as a trail dedicated to teaching people the various things seen in a forest with labels already on them. I thought this is a great idea that other parks ought to adopt. Not necessarily these ideas specifically, but use their resources as an active practical teaching area. There are plenty of parks that have a ranger or a guest give a lecture or a guided tour on a particular manner, but I haven’t yet seen anything like this. There is a fishing pier present and seems to be the most used part of the park, at least at this time of the year. It gives a nice view to one segment of the highly disjointed Patuxent River Park on the other side of the river. A coal fired power plant along with power lines crossing the river can also be seen looking south along the river. This park has a hidden jewel along one of its trail. From the parking lot next to the swimming pool there is a sign which contains a map of the park and the trails. Even with that, the trail entrance looks like just an opening between the trees and you’d be inclined to continue to follow the gravel trail. Nothing wrong with that, it is a nice walk too. But the trail has no trail marker, no blazes, nothing. Once you get into the trail a little bit you get onto a boardwalk like the one at Battle Creek. It is also steady and well maintained. Following the trail you will come to a spur that leads out into the wetlands and has two benches facing the wetlands. When you approach the benches you will see the boardwalk is twisted, don’t be alarmed, it is solid all the way. This is the jewel I refer to. It is an excellent place to see a variety of activity and I got some OK pictures of a Blue Heron here. It is fairly quiet here and I did not see anybody else on the trail at all. I walked a few other parts of the park, but I had been spoiled by the view from the benches. There is another spur, shorter than this one, that you will come upon first with benches facing each other. This is a nice spot, but I believe they should place an observation tower like the ones I saw at the Chesapeake Environmental Center here instead to give a view over the vegetation.

The lowlands next to the water in both of these places had been inundated fairly recently and looked muddy. A good rain will make these places look a bit more photogenic.

Arlington National Cemetery 02-20-06

2006-02-20T21:41:00.001-05:00

URL to Album:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meabbott/sets/72157605987357044/

I did not set out to go to the Arlington National Cemetery today. I went to Alexandria to see the President’s Day Parade but never made it there due to three gaffes on my part. I had planned out the trip so I would be there early and take up a spot I had selected that I felt would give me a good vantage point. However, I did not account for the time it would take for me to transfer from one subway train to the other, nor did I account for the mile I would walk from the metro station. As a result, when walked out of the subway station I headed in the direction I thought I was supposed to go without looking at the street signs (ding!) and went way, WAY off. I wound up back at the metro station and decided I had already missed half the parade and there was no point in proceeding to the parade. A train going a different direction than I planned to go arrived and I got on and headed to Arlington National Cemetery.

There isn’t much to say except that it is very sobering to see the rows and rows of headstones. I had bought a ticket on the tour bus but after the first stop I decided I would walk the rest of the way. I did not see all that I wanted to see and plan to return, sans tour bus. I stayed on the road as I went between the places I went and I read some of the headstones and I knew that there was a story behind each one. The most emotional moment would have been the Changing of the Guard ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I had tears in my eyes by the time I finished photographing it. This is, indeed, a very important place.

Bright Sunny Day, but too Cold!

2006-02-19T21:21:00.000-05:00

It was a bright and sunny day and the high was supposed to be 32. I figured if it actually was going to get that “warm” I would go and try the Cypress Swamp again. But the high only made it to 28. I decided that the bright sunny perfect for photography conditions just couldn’t offset the cold temperatures so I stayed inside working on some projects. Tomorrow’s conditions won’t be quite so sunny but it will be warmer. I have a couple of ideas of where I may go, so I am expecting to have something to upload tomorrow afternoon. Further on down the line I have a few places in mind that I would like to check out: Cunningham Falls State Park, Gunpowder Falls State Park and Elk Neck State Park. There are vastly more parks that are also on my mind, but you have to narrow them down to make a choice. I am amazed at how many parks of various sorts there are around here. These parks have caught my attention for the potential for wildlife viewing and photographing as well as trails. I have plenty of pictures of birds, I am hoping to spot different kinds of creatures before the leaves start growing and the range of vision drops in the woods. If I can land another bright sunny day in at least the upper 30s, I will pick one of those places and head to them. Any votes?

All caught up Blogging my Albums

2006-02-12T19:41:00.000-05:00

I have declared that I am now caught up blogging my albums even though I have not blogged all of them. I do not currently have plans to blog the older ones and will now blog the new ones as I do them. Most of them. I am not going to blog the snow scenes one I uploaded today because, well, there's nothing to say about it. It snowed. Voila. Enjoy.

Baltimore Aquarium 02-05-06

2006-02-12T19:00:00.001-05:00

URL to Album:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meabbott/sets/72157606352951878/

I went to the National Aquarium in Baltimore after I heard that they have a new Australia exhibit. They actually built a new building to attach to the rest of their complex for it and while the exhibit itself is phenomenal, I am disappointed at how little of the space they devoted to it. The second floor is mainly for the shop of which they now have 3 which I think is completely pointless.

Looking through my album you will notice a lack of fish in my photographs. It was too dark to photograph most of them and I wasn’t going to use flash directly towards the animals. The photos will mainly speak for themselves and I enjoyed the experience.

I also went to the World Trade Center in Baltimore which has an observation deck on the 27th floor which offers an excellent view of downtown Baltimore. However, the windows were absolutely filthy and I was appalled that they felt it was OK to charge full price for admission when that is really what they are selling. Despite the windows I was able to get some decent shots of the area and I plan to go up there again on a sunny day to hopefully get some better shots.

North Point State Park 01-28-06

2006-02-12T18:39:00.001-05:00

URL to Album:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meabbott/sets/72157606383993116/

North Point State Park is the park (map) I am the least happy with to date, mainly due to a lack of explanation of trails. While well marked like most parks, they would connect without explanation and I wound up lost and going down a trail that went away from where I thought I was going. There are signs at the parking lots with maps of the trails, but that is unhelpful while you are on the trail. At the very least the signs should exist at the ends of trails that junction with other trails. To make matters worse, the map that does exist on their website is not accurate. Most of the trails I encountered are not on this. In addition the nearly constant beeping of heavy trucks can be heard backing up. As observed by driving here, this park is near heavy industrial areas and you can hear this sound from every part of the park.

Despite all this, I enjoyed the trip to the park. There were a lot of interesting things to see. Two different lighthouses are visible from the park as well as the ruins from what I was told is an old power station that provided power to the trolley system as well as for an amusement park that had been on the property. There is a ruin of a ferry dock the power plant ruins as well. Further along where the visitor center is (closed for the season) there is what the map calls the Old Bay Shore Pier. You can walk a ways out into the bay on this earthen pier and it is a rather interesting experience. I did not see a lot of wildlife here, however I did see a bird hovering and it clearly was not a hummingbird (1 and 2). I don’t know what kind of bird this is and there’s a few more shots of it in the album for anyone curious. There is also an observation platform at the end of one of the trails and I got some nice pictures from it.

Looking at aerial photos of this place I see that I missed some photographic opportunities here and the very close Fort Howard Park which appears to have ruins of coastal defenses. I will probably come back to this park eventually.

Horseshoe Curve 01-27-06

2006-02-12T14:45:00.001-05:00

URL to Album:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meabbott/sets/72157606388663061/

Horseshoe Curve near Altoona Pennsylvania (aerial photo) is an excellent place to watch trains. It was a cold but very sunny day when my friend and I decided to take a trip up there. It was cold but not windy. Being winter, the museum, store and funicular were closed, but we could walk the stairs up to the viewing area. There is a recently repainted and not yet lettered GP 9 on display there. We had the tremendous fortune of meeting Mr. David Seidel at the top who is the Chapter Historian for the Horseshoe Curve Chapter of the NRHS (National Railway Historical Society). While we were waiting for horsepower to muscle its way through the curve, we had an enjoyable time talking with Mr. Seidel about Altoona railroad history. In nearby Altoona there is the Railroaders Memorial Museum which is more about life on the railroad than about the railroads themselves. It has been a while since I have been there but it is a first class museum and it is still improving. We did not visit the museum on this trip, but plan to when we come back to the area. It was an excellent and enjoyable day.

Wildfowl Trust of North America 01-22-06

2006-02-12T12:30:00.001-05:00

URL to Album:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meabbott/sets/72157611539355868/

The Chesapeake Environmental Center run by the Wildfowl Trust of North America (map) is another excellent place to visit. They have a variety of different kinds of scenery from beach to wetlands to pine stands and so on. The main attraction here is the birds and there are plenty of them. When you arrive you go to their visitor center to pay the $5 entry fee (they could use better signage since I nearly walked past it). It has a big window on a pond which had geese, swans and ducks when I was there. The visitor center also has some exhibits and they had what I would call a scoreboard where they were keeping track of sightings of various kinds of birds. They also have other attractions nearby in a fenced in area such as an aviary (under repair and no birds were in it) and some “raptor mews” which contains non-releasable birds of prey (usually due to injury). One mew had a pair of owls and the other a pair of Bald Eagles. I didn’t take pictures of them because the fencing prohibited good pictures, but you can see them quite well.

I was given a map of the facilities at the visitor center and I was able to plan my visit with it. I went first to the boardwalk over the wetlands. It has an observation tower (see the structure in the image to the left) roughly a third of the way out onto the wetlands and it provides a nice view. I would find two more observation towers on the park. There wasn’t a lot to observe from this area besides the scenery. Back down on the boardwalk I saw some small ponds in the wetlands area that have little minnow like fish in them. And the end of one leg of the boardwalk you wind up on the beach. There is a beach river there that was seemed to be draining water back into the bay that had come up during high tide. A variety of interesting patterns are present in the sand here.

After this I walked East along Lake Knapp to the Northern end of their Marshy Creek Trail. Along the way I saw a large crane like bird coming in for a landing. It was so large and so close I forgot how to use my camera and didn’t get any pictures of it before it disappeared out of view behind the vegetation. There are two features in this area. There’s a canoe landing which is a boardwalk over the wetland that angles down to the water at the end. This is a good viewing location and I got a few pictures from here. There’s another observation tower here as well. There were no birds in view of the tower here, either, but as with the previous tower it is a very scenic view. From here I went back South along the Marshy Creek Trail to the East Blind that looks over Lake Knapp. There are two duck blinds here, the West Blind (White Blind) was closed for repairs. This is an excellent spot to view the birds on Lake Knapp.

From there I walked through the Hummock Loop Trail. There wasn’t much to see in there, but it shows the diversity of scenery on the island. It was pleasant and quiet. Next I walked to the South Meadow loop. I imagine there will be more to see here in the summer, but again, it was pleasant and quiet. I walked back south to the Piney Point path and peeked in the Woodland Pond, no birds. So I kept walking. Now, when I walk through wooded areas, I tend to stop every few feet and look around to see if I can spot something interesting. After one of these stops, I did my looking around and didn’t notice anything and took one step. I cracked a branch and about 25 or 30 feet away from me a small deer went bounding into the woods. It went so fast I didn’t have time to remember I had a camera with me. At the end of this trail there was another observation tower. More of a platform than a tower, but it was high enough to see above the vegetation and get a nice view of the surroundings. On the way back to my van I returned to their fenced in area to give it a walk around. There are three ponds in this area, but I only saw birds in one of them. There is another duck blind in there that overlooks the fence and into a small pond, also devoid of birds. All in all I enjoyed this place and definitely will return to get some seasonal shots.

Wye Island 01-16-05

2006-02-11T19:07:00.001-05:00

URL to Album:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meabbott/sets/72157604479207117/

Wye Island was my next discovery on Microsoft’s mapping service. I went over there on a cold but nice day. This place is different from the other parks because it did not appear to be geared towards public use although there are facilities there for the public to enjoy. I found a trail guide on Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources website which lacked a map. It was here that I discovered that they have a very shortsighted policy of having people buy guides. So in order to get people to buy the guides, they omit the maps from the online trail guides which makes planning a trip more difficult. I would like to learn the logic behind this.

Wye Island has been my favorite spot to visit so far because it is so quiet and the variety of wildfowl present. Their trails end at coves where a variety of different kinds of wildfowl can be seen if you approach slowly and quietly. There were not very many people on the trails which was quite nice. One thing I had forgotten to mention about the Patuxent Refuge in my last entry was that dogs were permitted and unfortunately there were a lot of them. Many people treated the trails of that park as a play area for their pets so if you plan to go there to watch wildlife, keep that in mind. Anyway, as I was saying, there were not many people on the trails, but keep in mind I was there on a cold day in the middle of winter. The very small parking lots at the trailheads suggests that this is a seldom used park except for the Ferry Landing trail which seemed to have a decent sized parking lot. This particular trail also has restroom facilities at the head and end of the trail (no sink) that were built by a boyscout troop. The Ferry Landing trail is the easiest one to walk having been at one time a road to the ferry that had once been at the end. I had been hoping to see a deer at this park but I did not. I saw a variety of different kinds of ducks as well as geese and swans at this park. I am definitely planning to return to this place.

Patuxent Wildlife Refuge 01-08-06

2006-02-11T18:10:00.001-05:00

URL to Album:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meabbott/sets/72157611539885358/

Update: After moving my photos to Flickr I deleted the two Bald Eagle photos referenced below because, frankly, they aren't very good. I have left the links in place to those photos to Webshots here.

After my experience at Jefferson Patterson Park I decided to find a new place to go take pictures. I used Microsoft's mapping service to scroll around to find parks. I prefer it over google's because of how it displays on the screen and I feel that the actual map display looks better. I saw a great big blotch of green on the map labeled "Patuxent Research Refuge" and punched it up in google and found their website.

I saw there that they are home to the National Wildlife Visitor Center and decided that is where I wanted to go. The weather was supposed to be sunny but it was fairly cloudy most of the day so I didn't get the bright pictures I wanted, but was still a good day. I found that the Visitor Center is not on the actual Research Refuge but to the south of Route 197 from it. The visitor center itself is a nice looking modern building and has a world class exhibit inside. After you go through some fairly mundane but informative exhibits you walk into a room with beautiful glass exhibits with stuffed animals in their habitat from the various Wildlife Refuges from around the country. The visitor center has a nice "back porch" that looks out over Redington Lake. If you remain fairly still and quiet a variety of small birds will come to the various feeders around and I got some fairly nice shots from there.

After spending a few minutes there I was ready to hit the trails. Before I left for the place I looked at their website to see what kinds of trails (map at bottom of that page) they have. I was looking forward to taking the trail all the way around Cash Lake and then back to the visitor center. A park ranger said that the eastern leg of the Cash Lake trail was closed at that time as it is for the part of the year when the Ring Neck Duck stays there. I mentioned that I wished the closing was mentioned on the website and later when I got home and squinted properly I discovered that the map unhelpfully and barely visibly says “closed seasonally”. The friendly park ranger patiently described the places where I would be likely to see various kinds of birds. I was hoping I would see other kinds of wildlife as well but I did not. I followed the open portion of the Cash Lake Trail then backtracked to the Valley Trail which was rather hilly. Then I connected with the Laurel Trail and went back to the Visitor Center for a few more photos and called it a day. When I got home I discovered that I had scored a pair of shots of a Bald Eagle (1 and 2). Here is a Bird’s Eye view of the visitor center courtesy of Microsoft.

"Jefferson Patterson Park in Maryland"

2006-02-11T16:17:00.001-05:00

URL to Album:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meabbott/sets/72157611468202451/

I didn't set out to go to this park. I set out to go to the Battle Creek Cypress Swamp. Because this website didn't indicate which days of the year they were closed I called on Saturday (New Year's Eve) to ask if they would be open Sunday. The guy on the phone said they would be open their usual Sunday hours. They weren't. I would have known that had I gone to this URL, which is now the second hit on google but it wasn't when I first went looking for their website. I'd been there before in late winter or early spring some years ago and was pleased by how quiet the place was. I didn't see many critters but I did see a few tracks and I wanted to go back to take some pictures. Since they were closed I drove South on Rt 4 because I knew there were other places to see. I first stopped at Flag Ponds Nature Park which was also closed.

I then turned around and remembered seeing a sign for the Jefferson Patterson Park. It was kind of a winding scenic road off of Rt 4 and when I got there, it also was closed, but the gates were open so I had the opportunity to wander around. I mainly wandered around an archaeological patch and went down to the beach where I saw some geese which I was in later weeks to discover are EVERYWHERE. I am generally please with this set of photos given that it was my first outing for the purpose of taking pictures with my Canon S2 IS.

My photos on Webshots

2006-02-09T16:08:00.001-05:00

This blog is intended as a companion to my Webshots photos which can be found at the URL below. Webshots is a great place to store and share photos, but it is not very good for allowing me to accompany text with the albums. I will thusly begin a sort of an "integration" where I will create blogs here that relate to my albums. This will enable me to put down thoughts on the places I've gone to take pictures. I expect, at least in the beginning, for the blog entries to be fairly erratic and out of order to the date in which I posted the albums. With luck future albums will have blog entries posted around the time the photos are uploaded.

http://community.webshots.com/user/meabbott-date

Edit: I have copied my photos to flickr and all new photos are being posted there. See my photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/meabbott/